A Second Chance in the Second Place
by twowritehands
Summary: It must have been something in his face just then, as he smiled and thought of Narnia, that made him kingly again, because Beth’s smile changed. “You know, I think you were one once; a king in another life..."
1. Chapter 1

**AN: I revere C. S. Lewis, and after reading all the books through back-to-back in a matter of a couple of weeks, I couldn't get the characters out of my head. Personally Ed is my favorite, (books and movies) but I had not planned on writing a Narnia fic... this story just sort of...happened :)**

**Disclaimer: C. S. Lewis is the culprit. Not I. I only used his characters :) **

***SPOILER ALERT for those who have not read The Final Battle. (Read it! it is the best!)***

The Pevensies died in a railway accident. I like to think all of them paired off, but nothing was mentioned in the books because that wasn't the point of the stories. As far as I'm concerned, Eustace and Jill, Polly and Diggory, and Lucy and Tirian paired off. Peter remained the bachelor king and Edmund left someone behind.

Her name was Beth. They met the year before the accident when Edmund came to the train station to pick up Lucy. She was coming home from her last year of school. He had arrived on the platform early, so he took a seat on a bench and began to read a novel he had thought to shove into his raincoat. Not long after, a scream pulled him from the detective story.

"My bag! Help! He stole my bag!" a girl was crying. He spotted her elbowing her way through the crowd, chasing a boy his age toward the exit. It had been two years since anyone had called him King Edmund the Just, but for thirty years that had been who he was, and old habits die hard. When he saw the thief was planning to take the exit beside his bench, he devised a plan.

He remained in his seat so as not to scare the mugger from changing directions. Pretending to read the paperback in his hand, he held his umbrella in the other like a walking stick and waited for the exact moment the boy passed him.

No one watching saw exactly what happened next. One moment the thief was making away with the purse, and the next he was on his face at Edmund's feet. Edmund had stuck the umbrella between the mugger's running legs and tripped him. Then he knocked the boy a good one across the shoulders when he tried to stand.

"Your first mistake was stealing from a lady." Edmund told him. "You did a great dishonor to yourself."

The mugger snorted at his choice of words, but flinched away when Edmund stooped to retrieve the purse. The on-watchers cheered. The cowardly thief crawled away in shame, and the bag's owner came forward with a big smile of relief and appreciation. "Thank you so much, sir!"

"Don't mention it, miss . . ."

"Candley, Beth." She supplied.

"I'm—Ed Pevensie." He had almost said king; even an act that small had made Narnia closer to him. He could feel it fading and tried to hold onto it. But when he called himself Ed, it slipped away entirely. Now he was just a boy standing on a platform with a purse. He handed it back to her. She took it with a bashful smile. "Thank you again, Mr. Pevensie."

"Ed, please." He said.

"Ed." She said with that bashful smile again. She put her hair behind her ear, and Edmund thought he liked that. "I don't know what I would have done without your help. I would have had no ticket, no money. I would have been stranded."

"Whatever I could do to help, I suppose." He said because he didn't know what else to say. Actually, he did, but it was kingly stuff like before and he felt like an ass using it. She filled the silence with praise. "That was very brilliant how you stopped him! I've never seen anything like that in real life. It was very chivalrous."

Edmund wasn't sure if she was making fun of him or not. It made him feel like an even bigger ass. They were in modern England after all, not Narnia. And after all of the hard times he'd given Peter for acting like a high king. He waved her comment aside. "Oh it would have looked better if it had been a black umbrella. It might have passed for a sword then."

She laughed. "Maybe, but it was still the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. You were a knight straight out of the story books."

Edmund could only smile, because she had no idea how close she actually was to the truth. It must have been something in his face just then, as he smiled and thought of Narnia that made him kingly again, because Beth's smile changed. She titled her head to the side, and that effect made her eyes brighter. "You know, I think you were one once, in another life."

Edmund's astonishment wiped the smile from his face for a moment, and he looked at this girl, really looked at her, for the first time, knowing that she had never meant to tease him for his chivalry. His smile returned, more Ed than king this time, but his best one yet. "Well, I was a great warrior king of a magical land as a boy."

She laughed again, and Edmund liked it. He continued, "No really! They called me King Edmund the Just."

"I am sure they did if Sir Edmund delivered justice for everyone, including strangers he met on vacation."

"Miss Candley, do you think it's possible," he had to pause to gather his thoughts and marvel at his own rashness. His heart was racing as if he were in battle again. Never had he asked out a modern girl before. "I mean, do you think you would like to have some tea or, or something?" In the back of Edmund's mind, he was wondering at Beth's ability to make his feel like an ass three different times in one conversation. He waited in trepidation for her reaction.

It was the best he could have hoped for: surprised, a tiny bit bewildered, and then very happy. The joy lasted maybe ten seconds, and then she looked crestfallen. "I can't." She said to her shoes. "I'm sorry. I'm on my way to my cousin's for the holidays."

"Oh," Edmund said. "That's . . . It's good to visit for the hols . . ." Beth nodded and turned to leave. He was disappointed and relieved that she was going; all he wanted was to sink into the pavement, or just disappear. Then she suddenly stopped and faced him again with the kind of brave smile you get when you are acting impulsively.

"I come back in twelve days. Maybe we can meet here again after the 5 o'clock from Bristol?" Now Beth was feeling like the ass and Edmund was too bewildered to speak. He nodded. "Yes! Yes, that would be wonderful…"

A train pulled into the station. Everything was hustle and bustle as the passengers filed off and others climbed on in their places, but Edmund and Beth remained standing before one another smiling. Then he realized what train it was. "Oh, Lucy!"

"Excuse me?" Beth asked.

"Lucy, my sister, I'm here to pick her up. She's home from school." He spotted her then, retrieving her luggage. She looked even more grown up since the last time he had seen her, reminding him that she would understand what he was doing if she happened to spot him talking to a girl. Panic and embarrassment raced around his head for a moment, before Beth saved him.

"I should go." She said. "My train will arrive any moment."

"Great, okay." He said. She smiled awkwardly and said goodbye. Edmund waved and then felt like a fool for doing it. She was out of sight when Lucy finally appeared at his shoulder, her heavy luggage cart in tow. She threw her arms around him in greeting. "Edmund!"

"Hullo, Lu." He said, returning the hug. She pulled back with mischief in her eyes. "Okay. Who was she?"

**AN: Plz leave a reveiw...end of each chapter or the whole thing, but do leave one! PLEASE!**


	2. Chapter 2

Beth got off the train and saw Edmund waiting for her at the bench. With a rush of excitement and trepidation, she went to him. He stood with his hands in his coat pockets, smiling openly.

"You came," she said happily.

"I said I would." He said as if she shouldn't have expected anything else. She felt like shivering with the combination of nerves and excitement for what was happening. "I thought you might have forgotten me . . ."

"No." He said simply, still smiling. He was looking at her comfortably, no longer the shy nervous boy from their last parting. He continued, revealing butterflies beneath the smooth exterior. "I was nervous, I didn't know if you had been serious . . ."

"We _are_ going about this in a strange way." She admitted, biting her lip.

"But I like it." Edmund assured, adding, "I've seen stranger things happen."

"Really?" Beth asked, intrigued by his tone. He grinned. "Shall we trade stories over tea?"

"Yes, let's, I want to learn all about you."

Edmund's smile revealed his pleasure at those words. He too wanted to learn all about the strange girl who had entered his life. They walked to a café and ordered drinks. Beth started. "I told my family all about the noble gentleman who had saved me from a mugging. My parents are eternally grateful."

Edmund laughed a bit in embarrassment. "It was nothing."

"I told them you said that too and now I think my mother is quite taken with you." She laughed and he couldn't help joining in.

"Did you tell them you were meeting me here?" He asked. Her sheepish smile relieved him. He smiled. "I haven't told my family either. They think I am at the bookstore."

"Even Lucy?" Beth asked, impressing Edmund that she remembered his sister's name. He grinned. "I wouldn't doubt _she's_ figured it out. She spotted us talking that day."

"Ah, do you think she'll tell everyone else what you're up too?"

"No, Lucy would never do something like that. She's special like that." he said fondly. Beth smiled and sipped her tea. "She sounds like an extraordinary girl."

"She is very much. Peter and I like her better than our other sister, Susan."

"That's a terrible thing to say!" Beth said, though she didn't sound like she was scolding. He laughed and shook his head. "Maybe, but if you knew her. . . Su's forgotten everything that's important. All she cares about now is being an 'adult', fashion, and rich suitors."

"Oh!" Beth said, putting a hand to her heart and empathizing with his disgust. "Trust me, I know sisters like that, I _have_ sisters like that!"

"Really? How many brothers and sisters do you have?"

"I have only three sisters."

"No brothers, eh?"

"None, and the oldest, Karen and Samantha, all they care about right now is a boy named John that they have been fighting over for the last year. They barely listened to my story about you. Annie, though, she's my favorite."

"Older or younger?"

"Younger. And she said I should have chucked the trip and spent the time with you."

"I like her already."

And so went their first date, then the second, and a third. They went to bookstores and picture-shows. Beth dragged him into a ribbon shop on their fifth date. "Just for a bit, Ed. I want to pick out a gift for Lucy."

"You don't have to buy her a present to get her to like you." He said. The other Pevensies had learned of Beth the week earlier, when Peter and Lucy had put their minds together and figured out that he wasn't in the library. Edmund had stayed up all that night telling Peter about her.

"Wow, Ed," Peter had said with bright eyes and a teasing grin. "Sounds like you're in love!"

Edmund hadn't thrown a shoe at him like when he was twelve, the last time Peter had suggested that he was in love. This time he had sighed and said, much to his older brother's bewilderment, "I think I am, Pete. You have to meet her!"

Lucy, of course, had been thrilled for her brother, and boasted to the others that she had seen Beth at the train station. Susan had smiled and said nice things, for once thinking of something other than shoes. A meeting had been arranged for the next weekend without much say on Edmund's behalf. Fortunately, Beth was optimistic about meeting the names she heard so often. After their traditional tea and tour of town, Edmund and Beth were to meet up with Peter and Lucy. (Susan had gone to the country with some close friends on the last minute, and had sent her apologies that morning.)

"I know, but I still want to." Beth said to Edmund, rummaging through a box of ribbon on a shelf. "Lucy feels like a sister to me the way you talk about her, and I always get Annie a ribbon."

Hearing Beth call his sister a sister secretly thrilled him, but Edmund rolled his eyes, smiled, and kissed her hand. "I think her favorite color is blue."

Beth grinned and set to searching. He watched her face change every time she found a prettier ribbon. He was smiling because he couldn't help it. Beth felt his eyes on her, but pretended she didn't notice as she surveyed every shade of blue she came across. He sped the process up by literally tossing the rejected shades to the back of the bin and judging several on his own. They got into a silent battle over this until Beth surrendered and trusted his judgment.

"I want to ask you something." He said as he laughed over his triumph. "Give me you hand?"

Beth froze in shock and double-looked him. Then she realized that he was literally asking for her hand, and not for marriage. He had his own extended between them, a golden ribbon ready to tie. She presented her wrist with hardly a noticeable hesitation, trying to breathe normally and get her heart rate down again. Edmund had continued, bringing up the real question he intended to ask. "My mum figured out about us and now she wants you and your parents to come around for dinner. Do you think that will be okay?"

Beth laughed. "Yes, that would be great." She said as he tied the ribbon in a neat bow.

"There, what do you think?"

"I love it."

"If I bought it for you would you wear it every time I saw you?" He asked. Suddenly Beth wasn't so sure if he _had_ been only asking for her arm earlier. The look in his eyes held her in place and made her forget what she was going to say. She managed to break eye contact and remembered the ribbon. She touched it. It was warm from his fingers. She nodded. "Would you tie it onto my wrist everyday?"

"I could." He said thickly. Both knew what the ribbon represented now. They were toeing the edge of a big leap, so big that neither of them could see the other side. They were terrified, but sure at the same time.

Beth giggled at his answer. Edmund grinned and purchased the ribbon. Beth found a beautiful sky blue lace ribbon that suited Lucy. The atmosphere of the day returned, only this time with more happiness and deeper understanding than before. Beth couldn't wait to get home and tell Anne all about it.

"Where to next?" Edmund asked as they stepped onto the sidewalk. He offered her an arm. Beth took it and hugged close to him. It felt so natural neither noticed it was the most contact they had ever had. Beth was avoiding stepping on the dividing cracks. "Well, we still have an hour before we meet up with Peter and Lucy, and since I made you go into a girl's shop, it's only fair that we go to a boy's shop next."

He laughed and squeezed her arm under his. "Thank you, love, but boys don't have shops because we don't shop when we can help it."

Beth flushed. He had never called her that before. Edmund realized what sentiment he had let slip but felt no need to take it back. The next thing Beth knew, he had swept her up in both arms and they were dancing down the sidewalk. They spun past the shop windows in a two-step waltz that she wasn't familiar with, but he led with such surety that she soon learned the simple steps. She laughed aloud in pure joy. "I can't believe we are just dancing down the street!"

"Would you rather do something else?"

"No! I never want to do anything else." She admitted. People were starring, but she didn't care. She felt like she was in an elegant gown, and he was looking at her like she was the belle of the ball. He held her in a secure dance frame that made her wonder, "Have you taken dance lessons?"

"Yes," He said with a mysterious smile that she had come to recognize. Beth raised her eyebrows. "Oh, so you learned as Sir Edmund?"

"Of course, knights must learn to dance. It instills grace and rhythm needed in sword craft."

Beth laughed. "That's right! Is it possible you've read as many stories as I have?"

He shrugged evasively. "It's how I spent my childhood."

"And now you've moved on to detective novels?" Beth asked, watching his reaction. Edmund didn't say anything. He met her eyes and looked away. She sighed and stopped the dancing. "You will tell me one day, won't you? Whatever it is you aren't saying now?"

He stopped pretending to be confused about what she was talking about, gulped and then nodded. "One day I will. I promise."


	3. Chapter 3

Peter and Lucy took to Beth instantly. Lucy, touched by the ribbon, was delighted to report that she was friends with Anne at school. Peter got along amiably with her like another sister. "Better than Susan anyway," was something he said later, as it became more common for Beth to fill the older sister's place as the fourth member of the party, and she listened to their stories about the old days, believing them to be games played in the backyard. "At least she doesn't change the subject."

True to her word, Beth wore the golden ribbon at all times, and true to his, Edmund tied it to her wrist at the beginning of every meeting. Peter asked Edmund about it one day, after hearing the tale end of a conversation between Beth and Lucy about it. Being the older brother, he couldn't help the amount of teasing that slipped into his voice as he brought up the subject. Edmund listened to the jibe and then really did throw a shoe at him. Peter laughed and apologized. "I suppose I understand. It's just weird."

"I know it is, but," Edmund had shrugged, looking for a way to explain, "it never feels that way when I'm with her."

Peter had ruffled Edmund's hair and then changed the subject.

Beth and Edmund met each other's parents at dinners and all approved, though the mothers were worried about the couple's young age and the speed of their developing relationship. In fact, just two months after their meeting, Edmund gave Beth a ring. It had happened under extraordinary circumstances, so much like their meeting, Edmund said later, that it just made sense to give the thing to her then.

They had been walking through the park. Beth was reporting her parents' remarks on the recent Pevensie/Candley dinner. "Mum's wondering how Mrs. Pevensie figured out how to raise such fine young gentlemen like you, because you showed such remarkable table manners."

Edmund smiled and kissed her cheek. "Mum wonders as well. Peter and I amaze her everyday." Here he was cut off by horrific sounds.

Up ahead, two dogs were trying to rip each other's throats out. Mothers were snatching up their children, and the owners were trying desperately to call the dogs off, hesitant to put hands into the matter. Everyone gave the scene a wide birth. Rather than walking off the path, Edmund and Beth paused while two police officers quickly intervened, and with the help of one leash and their battering sticks, managed to pull the animals apart. Both dog owners were given a hard warning, and told to take their pets home.

The park's pleasant scene slowly picked back up again, but with the heightened sense of awareness that comes once your nerves have been jangled. One of the owners dragged his dog out of the park by its leash. The other dog sat in the grass, licking his wounds in defeat.

"I wonder what set them off?" Beth said.

"He must have said something to offend the other one."

Beth laughed but Edmund was almost serious. His encounter with talking animals in Narnia has forever altered his understanding of them. To him, even these smaller animals talked; humans just couldn't understand them.

It was as if Beth's giggle was a trigger.

The remaining dog's master shouted in fright as the canine lurched forward with a terrible bark and charged down the path toward Beth. She screamed. Edmund jumped in front of her and braced for the attack. He had fought in a war once with wolves on the opposing side. He knew dogs' strategy of a kill, where one would strike a larger animal to bring it down. He also knew a way to avoid a good bite when a sword wasn't readily available.

The dog leapt. Beth and the onlookers screamed again. Edmund felt groomed claws rake his chest, but the sharp teeth only grazed his right arm before his left shot out and connected with a pressure point. The pooch yelped and crashed fully into Edmund. He fell onto his back with one hundred pounds of dog on him.

"Goodness!" The owner cried, sliding to a stop over him. "Are you okay, sir?"

"Ed?" Beth cried.

"What did he do to the dog?" someone asked.

"Did he stab it?"

Edmund sat up and gently rolled the dog to the ground beside him. "I'm all right—so is your dog, he's only sleeping."

"Scared me to death," Beth said, a hand on her heart. The owner was beside himself. "I am so sorry about that! I just got him from my cousins in the country. They didn't tell me he was so temperamental! That was some fast thinking on your part, though, kid, really! I can take you to a hospital. Are you okay?"

"That won't be necessary." Edmund said after examining his arm. "Barely broke the skin. He doesn't have rabbis?"

"No. No, I had him checked out for that just yesterday. He's just a mean dog! I am so sorry!" The man said, helping Edmund to his feet.

"It's okay, no one was hurt." Edmund said when the owner cursed the dog and apologized again.

"What do you mean no one was hurt? You're bleeding!" Beth cried. Edmund waved her down. "Scratches only, and better me than you or someone else is what I'm saying."

Beth's eyes were huge. "You can't be this chivalrous in real life!"

"I'm not. What would anyone have done?"

"I don't know," the owner said, forming a makeshift leash with his belt in order to hold the beast off anyone else now that it was stirring. "You seemed to know what you were doing. You had a plan before he even got to you. Are you a dogcatcher or a vet or something? I mean, how did you know where the pressure point was?"

Ed smiled and shook his head. "I read it in a book once."

"God love you sir for thinking of it so quickly! Miss, I beg your pardon for my dog's behavior."

Beth sighed. "It's fine, I suppose, so long as we never see it again."

"My plan exactly. Come on, boy." The man dragged the dog out of the park. Beth turned on Edmund and dragged him to a bench. "You need first aid."

"The bleeding's stopped." He said, examining his arm again. Beth raised her eyebrows and tweaked his chin. She showed him the red smear of blood on her fingers incredulously. Edmund blinked in surprise and touched his chin.

"It was his claw," she explained. "And you've got another cut on your neck." She fished a handkerchief from her purse. Edmund felt of his neck and found more blood, though less than his chin. "I didn't even feel that!" he said, finding his own handkerchief to clean his fingers. Beth nearly rolled her eyes, and reminded him a tiny bit of Susan when she asked, "How could you not?" but she smiled afterwards because she believed him anyway.

"I was focusing more on the teeth than anything." He said. Beth nodded and took his face to dab at his chin. His jaw was a bit rough with new stubble. Her fingers were cool against his skin. Edmund swallowed; her touch sent electricity through him.

"It's common for a soldier to overlook minor injuries in light of larger ones. Men have been known to die from infected cuts that weren't seen to when they doctored a major wound."

Beth smiled to herself and said nothing. This was one of the qualities that she loved about Edmund, the way he seemed to speak from experience on extraordinary things. Things he could not have possibly seen in his twenty years. When he spoke like this, a sense of mystery fell over him, a mystery that drove her wild on the inside, because it was never an intended mystery. Everything he said allegedly came from a book, and it could have, but Beth knew the difference between learning a fact in school and learning a fact in life. Edmund often spoke of things in the manner of one speaking of a life-learning experience, just as he was now. To young to have fought in the Great War, Beth knew he could not have been drawing from the experience in this life. She did not, however, rule out his past life.

"I want to thank you, Edmund." She said. She checked the bleeding on his chin and found that it had stopped. He lifted one side of his mouth. "For what? Bleeding on you? I hope that wasn't your favorite handkerchief? Here take mine."

"For bleeding _for_ me," She corrected. She dabbed at his neck and then took his arm into her lap to clean it up. "I've never met anyone as wonderful as you. You are exactly the kind of person I would want to be beside me if I ever found myself somewhere I didn't want to be."

Edmund tilted his head at the odd expression. "Are you planning on ending up in such a dangerous place soon?"

She shrugged, unfazed. "Life is unexpected like that. You should prepare for anything,"

Edmund was suddenly seized with some strong emotions. He took her hands. "Beth Candley, you are the most amazing woman I have ever met."

She blushed. "Woman? I'm only nineteen."

"And nothing fazes you, not muggers, not attacking dogs. I say, if I was a knight in another life, then you must have been there too, surviving alone, because I'd remember it if I had found you." He stroked her hair. "We found each other in this one at least."

She was nearly crying. Their noses brushed when he kissed her once on the lips. It was short but soft and lingering. She didn't see him get the ring out of his pocket. He held it for her to see. "I bought this for you."

Beth gasped. It wasn't a diamond or anything. It was a simple gold band with a bow engraved on it but it was beautiful. She held out her finger and he slid it into place. "I don't know what this entails exactly, giving you a ring without asking for marriage. Is it . . . okay?"

Beth smiled and kissed his cheek, closer to the mouth than usual. "Yes. I love it."

He didn't seem appeased. "Should I not have? I mean, should I have gotten a diamond and asked for your hand?"

"Ed," Beth laughed, cutting across him. She looked into his eyes. "Do you _want_ to marry me?" she didn't expect the "Yes," he delivered with hardly a pause.

"Oh" was all that she could say. Her mind began racing to catch up with her heart, which was screaming its own ideas about an immediate wedding. "So do I." she said with what breath she had left. His face lit up with a smile that crinkled his eyes. Then he looked slightly put out. "I can't afford a diamond."

"I don't need one." She said. "Let this be the ring."

"You deserve a diamond."

"I deserve the best." She said. Edmund nodded. She put the ring against his lips. He kissed it and then her hands. She smiled. "There. It will be a diamond to me if you are there to kiss it every morning."

The engagement was to be for one year; it would last for the rest of Edmund's life.

**AN: how'dya like that last line? I impressed myself :P **


	4. Chapter 4

This is a good time to consider what Beth went through after hearing the news of the railway accident. Even though she still had parents and sisters, she felt all alone in the world without Edmund. She cried herself to sleep that night. She wished it wasn't true. She wished that he would ring the bell in the morning and tell her it was all a nightmare.

The funeral was a terrible ordeal with six coffins lined up in the Pevensie graveyard, and poor Susan a total wreck as she wept for her entire family. Beth didn't known what to say. Here was someone even more alone than she felt. After all, Susan had lost both parents, both brothers, and her only sister in the same day. Susan said only three words when she arrived.

"Are you Beth?"

When Beth nodded, Susan threw her arms around the younger girl and cried harder. Beth cried too, but in light of Susan's loss, her pain was nearly bearable. When the service was over, and all the condolences were made, Susan invited Beth to her flat for coffee, "I never put in the effort to meet you when—when Ed was alive." She said in a shaky voice. New tears rolled down her freckled face. "He was angry with me," she sniffed and braved on to get it all off her chest. "He was angry with me for—for so many reasons . . . I thought he was too immature to get married—I told him . . . I-I said, 'Stop being so childish!' and he hung up the phone and-and-and that was the last thing I ever said to him!"

"Oh, Susan, it's all right!" Beth said faintly. She was having a hard time breathing, but tried to comfort Susan in her distress. "Brothers and sisters fight all of the time."

"We didn't used to! Well, at least not so seriously, so constantly! I just wanted to grow up and forget our silliness, but they wouldn't have it! They insisted on going on about the old days like we could go back, but we couldn't! And now—" She broke off, sobbing into her handkerchief.

*

Susan's flat was very modern and clean. Beth sat at the kitchen table with a hot mug of tea. Susan sat across from her sipping coffee. Neither girl was crying now. They were dried up for the moment. Beth kept expecting Edmund to walk into the room at any moment with a big smile on his face. He had wanted Susan to meet Beth so badly. She thought she could hear exactly what he would say to having missed it.

She smiled sadly and felt the tears returning. It felt wrong that he wasn't there. He wouldn't walk back into a room ever again. She wouldn't hear his voice or see his face again like he had promised. She looked at her ring. He would never kiss it again—when was the last time he had kissed it?

"_I'll see you Saturday," He had said at her door._

"_What about tomorrow?" She had asked, disappointed. He had looked like he might say something again. He had been acting strange all evening, starting sentences he never finished. Now the elusive subject was closer to the surface than it had ever been before. He had been practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. He had kissed her then and said, "Peter and I are going out of town on an errand. We should be back before you know it."_

"_What are you doing?"_

_Again, he had looked slightly torn. "I want to tell you. If only . . . I would take you with me if I could!"_

"_Then take me." She prompted. He only smiled and shook his head. "I will tell you everything one day, I promise, but not tonight. Tonight, I say sweet dreams to you my love!" he had been talking like that all evening, adding to the mystery of what he was keeping from her. "I'll see you Saturday."_

"_Good night, Ed—wait!"_

"_What is it?" he asked, one foot in the gutter. Beth had lifted her hand. "May I have my diamond for Friday?"_

_He smiled. "Of course . . . Perhaps I will bring one back with me . . ."_

Beth twisted the golden band on her finger. It was Saturday _now_ and he was not there. A crushing weight pressed down on her chest. Her breaths came short and painful.

"Beth?" Susan asked with concern; the girl was as pale as a ghost. Beth shook her head. "I . . . I . . . I can't breathe . . . I . . ."

Now it was Susan's turn to take care of Beth. She jumped up and found a paper lunch sack. Beth breathed into it until the room straightened out. "I just wish I could leave this all behind me and go to someplace brand new!" She exploded through hot tears. "I want to go to a place where magical things can happen and no one has to die!"

Susan's strange expression embarrassed Beth for making such a silly wish. She looked down at the table and sniffed. "Ed always reminded me of a place like that." (Here Susan double-looked her and Beth laughed.) "I used to tell him he must have a knight in another life. You must know what I'm talking about—Peter and Lucy too . . . Sometimes they were so full of magic, of light . . . I thought you would be the same, but you aren't. You're very plain and normal."

Susan winced. Then she nodded. "They were . . . so happy and free. I used to be like them. Then . . . I guess I thought it was easier to be normal." She trailed off as, for the first time in years, she remembered what Narnia had been like. And like Beth, she wanted to escape to it.

Just as Susan thought this, her living room changed entirely. If you have ever been in one room as all of the walls in the next are vanished, then you are familiar with the strange rattle and roar it makes. Susan had a good idea what she would find on the other side of the door. Beth was confounded as she followed Susan into a meadow that hadn't been there before.

Susan explained to her new friend as best she could about Narnia and the Pevensies' lives there. They walked through the country as she spoke. Beth was adjusting to the news quite well. She told Susan she believed her because it just made sense and felt like the very kind of thing that Edmund had been dancing around telling her.

"He said he was going back!" Beth said suddenly, remembering the last time she had seen him.

"Yes," Susan said warily. She knew what was in Beth's head. "We weren't supposed to come back, but they somehow got it in their heads that they could."

"So they could be here!"

"I don't think—" Susan began gently, but Beth gasped. "There he is!"

Susan looked to where Beth was staring and froze. He was standing at the edge of the wood, his back turned, a compass in hand. Susan couldn't believe her eyes. "Edmund?"

Beth took off running first. Susan followed with a shake of her head. "Is it possible?"

"EDMUND!" Beth cried when she was nearly to him. He turned.

It wasn't the youngest Pevensie brother after all. Beth skidded to a stop, embarrassed and heartbroken. Susan came to her side with a sympathetic look; she had known better than to hope.

The mysterious someone turned out to be the steward of this land called Ainra. Susan was surprised to learn they weren't in Narnia after all, but then thought it made sense. Aslan had said they would never go back.

The steward was suspicious of the two strangers from a mysterious place called "England" until Susan mused aloud that Aslan must have sent them there to learn something.

"Aslan sent you?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Yes," Susan said. "But we'll have a job finding out why."

"He's answered my pleas! Oh, praise Aslan for his mercy!" and the man who looked so much like Edmund from he back dropped to his knees before the girls. "I have prayed for help ever since the King and Queen became trapped inside the enchanted castle years ago! I don't feel smart or brave enough to watch over the kingdom alone, and I can't trust anyone, for I don't know who cast the spell in the first place. I have taken it upon myself to, first find a magician that can free our majesties, and then find the evil sorcerer who ensnared them in order to deliver justice on him! Aslan has sent you here to help me on my quest!"

"We shall try our very best." Susan said, for she had already made up her mind to stop being the horrible person she had become. In no time at all, she was Susan the Gentle again. Only she thought that wasn't good enough, so she modeled herself after her sister who no one hated, Lucy. And I have to say, the transformation bewitched them all and the steward became quite taken with her, but the change wasn't so pleasant a charm on Beth.

The girl was naturally opened minded and adapted well to the life of adventure like those of her favorite books. Susan taught her how to draw a bow properly, and she learned horseback, but on the inside, her heart was breaking again and again. Everything reminded her of Edmund so much it hurt by the end of the day and she cried herself to sleep. She became angry with the world, but would have no thoughts of leaving it, because here she felt closer to him.

She never forgot the feeling that had come over her when she had thought she saw Edmund, nor could she get over the feeling she had when it turned out not to be him. Despite Susan's reminders that her brothers and sister were buried in England and "It just didn't work that way," Beth couldn't help but hope to find them here, alive.

It caused a rift between the girls, and that lasted until they discovered a magician strong enough to break the spell and free the King and Queen. Then the King, who was wise in his old age, sat Beth down for a talk. He made her see how silly it was to wish someone would come back when they just couldn't. "Better to find something to do with your time, until you get to wherever they went, wouldn't you say?"

The problem with doing that was Beth couldn't be sure where he had went to, but the old king succeeded in opening her eyes to the beauty she was missing in her misery. So she beat back that fear by taking the world head on. She made up with Susan, and they became close friends as they continued their quest to find the culprit behind the majesties' imprisonment. It was a fast paced, dangerous adventure, and now that Beth was allowing herself to feel and have fun, she got completely swept up in it all, and all but forgot about England.

**AN: I apologize for the vagueness of Beth's adventure in this second place. I just don't have that creative bug like Lewis when it comes to grand adventures...sadly :(**


	5. Chapter 5

As the Pevensies followed Aslan further up and further in, not all were one hundred percent content. The great lion came to Edmund's side and said in his gentle voice, "My son, I do not want you to fear for young Bethany. Relax and enjoy your friends and family in paradise. My work is not done; I shall create a new land in Narnia's image. Bethany shall come to love it as you loved Narnia, and in those adventures, you will see each other again."

This lifted Edmund's spirits and he rejoiced with his family in Aslan's home for he knew that time passed differently here than were she was. Indeed, it seemed no time at all that Aslan came to his side again to speak personally to him.

"It is time."

"I get to see Beth again?" Edmund asked happily. Lucy and Peter's jaws dropped, for this was the first time they were remembering the girl he left behind. Lucy was the first to frown, though it was not a frown as we know it--there are no frowns in that place--but her face changed to one of concern. "Oh dear, she's died already? My, time goes by quickly down there!"

"Will she be older than we remember her?" Peter wanted to know. Aslan chuckled. "No, dear hearts, she is not coming here. Edmund will go to the place she is."

"Is it possible to go back?" Peter asked with wide eyes. He was thinking of Lazarus. Aslan knew this and chuckled again. "She is in Ainra: the world in another room. She has fired a magic arrow from a golden bow into a dying sun to summon the famous warrior king of their legends."

"Is that Edmund?" Lucy asked happily.

"You shall appear," Aslan told Edmund, "and help them see that the power and strength to win this battle is already among them. Go in my name."

Edmund knelt before the lion and said thank you. Aslan breathed on him and before Peter and Lucy's eyes, he seemed to blow away like smoke.

*

When Edmund arrived in Ainra, it caused quite a stir. The arrow seemed to split the air like a curtain and Sir Edmund came striding through the shimmering fabric with a big grin on his face. He looked so kingly Beth nearly didn't recognize him for it.

There wasn't anything particularly interesting on his end. He felt Aslan's breath and then he saw Beth waiting at the end of a tunnel, so he walked to her. "Hullo, Beth." He said somewhat awkwardly after reaching her and receiving not even a smile.

"Edmund?" she asked softly in disbelief. And why not? She'd seen him buried and accepted his death, yet here he was, an answer to her most desperate wish, _after_ she'd stopped wishing for it. He nodded and reached up to stroke a single finger down her cheek.

His touch was a jolt of electricity that brought a deadened part of her back to life. In three sharp flashes, she felt the pain of loosing him, the doubly sharp pain of still loving him, then relief that broke her heart with its magnitude. Tears spilled down her cheeks and she began shaking. "Ed?"

"It's me, Beth." He promised. His arms were around her, holding her up, because her feet couldn't. She reached up and felt of his face, still disbelieving. It was a trick, a dream. She couldn't recall waking up this morning. But his face was warm and soft, and real. He closed his eyes at her touch and Beth's heart fell back into place, full and beating regularly once more. She threw her arms around him and he hugged her back tightly.

"I am so sorry I left you!" He whispered fiercely.

"It's okay." Beth said into his ear. "I forgive you."

"How long has it been?"

"I forget."

He took her face in his hands and stroked her hair. The steward and the magician were tactfully keeping a respectable distance, allowing privacy but deeply intrigued by the whispered conversation and displays of emotion. After a few kisses and another long hug, the pair seemed to recall they weren't the only ones on the cliff. Edmund straightened up and introduced himself. The situation was described to him thusly:

The evil witch was discovered plotting to take over with a massive underground army that was bigger than the King's, and the magician wasn't strong enough to fight the witch alone.

Edmund took the news well and confidently tossed some ideas off the top of his head about what to do. By sun down, they had a plan, whereas that morning they had been lost. The company returned to the castle before the sun sank below the horizon, and Susan (who had stayed behind with the queen to handle affairs in case the arrow didn't work) fainted when Edmund walked in for dinner. They roused her with smelling salts and then Susan hugged her brother, and cried and asked after the others. Over dinner, Edmund told the story of Narnia's final battle, and how he had come to realize that he had died. It removed a burden from both girls to know that the Pevensies were in a better place.

"I don't understand something." Susan said with a creased brow. "Why were _you_ allowed to come back?"

Edmund dabbed his napkin across his mouth in thought. Then he looked lovingly at Beth and took her hand. Susan's eyes softened at their affection.

"Aslan sent me here to help you win this war, and then . . ."

Beth jerked her hand back. "You have to leave again?"

Edmund blinked. "I think so. Aslan wasn't specific about how long it would take—"

Beth excused herself from the table and ran out of the room. Susan sat looking down at her plate, no longer eating. Edmund sat lost. "I can't help it, Su! I would stay if I could, you know I would!"

"I suppose." Susan said delicately. She looked up at him with burning eyes full of empathy for her friend. "You didn't see how she was when you died . . . She's just got over it and started acting like a sensible person again and then here you are." That stung Edmund to hear Beth had moved on. Susan continued gravely. "I don't think she would survive it again."

Her words were so sure they sent an ominous chill down Edmund's spine. He never wanted to cause that much grief to anyone. Ever. "What do I do?" he begged. His older sister sighed helplessly and put her chin in her hand. Then she said something the old Susan would never have said. "This time that you have together is a gift from Aslan, a second chance that not many of us get. Make the most of it."

Edmund ran after Beth and found her weeping on the stairs. She moved away from his touch at first. He sat beside her. She turned her face away, sniffing. He grabbed her hand and kissed the ring she still wore. A shiver went up her arm from his touch and she sobbed.

"I can't do this." She mouthed, to distraught to find her voice.

He shushed her and dried her face. "You can do anything, Beth Candley, because you are strong and beautiful and I—" she looked up at him then with big watering eyes and his voice caught. He kissed her. Feeling her last reserve break, Beth crushed her lips against his in return. Love stronger than anything she had felt so far washed over her in waves. She was drowning in all the new sensations. Edmund's lips and hands were the only things in the world, and all she wanted. But it wasn't enough. This limited connection wasn't enough to channel her love.

"I love you." Edmund said. Their lips touched as he spoke, and Beth opened her eyes to see that his face was wet. She didn't know if it was from his tears for hers.

"I know I hurt you once," he was saying "and I will do anything to keep that from happening, but Aslan sent me back to you. I can't leave you again without marrying you. Become my wife, Beth? Tonight? If this is all the time we have together, please. I want to make you mine."

A thrill went through her body at his words. She had planned on marrying him in England, but the wedding had been a while off yet; she'd only begun to plan. To imagine marrying Edmund this night, to become his wife, to share his bed, sent a blush to her cheeks and made her a little afraid, but to say no never crossed her mind. She was born to marry him, that much she knew.

"I will." She said. Edmund didn't think he heard right. "You will?"

She nodded and then he blushed. "I don't mean to rush you or pressure you—"

"Ed!" She said with a smile, putting her fingers on his lips. "Do you want to begin our life together or not?"

He closed his eyes for a second. His Adam's Apple bobbed. "I don't want to make it harder for you when I have to leave." He whispered.

"Then give me everything I ask for, and leave behind as much as you can. Last time it was so sudden, so soon. We'd barely had time together to remember."

"We need a priest then." Edmund said happily, pulling her to her feet. "And Susan can witness."

This time when Edmund told his older sister that he was getting married, she agreed with the idea and wished them the best. She was Beth's maid-of-honor and held the bouquet when Edmund slid the ring onto Beth's finger in front of the priest.

"I now pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

The audience cheered. Then the King declared a feast and the celebrations went on into the night.

*

Beth undressed down to her shift behind the changing screen. The rustling across the room had stopped. Edmund had finished situating himself in the bed and was now waiting silently. Beth was shaking; she didn't know what to do. How was she supposed to go about this? What was going to happen? She had a general idea of the act of course, but all of the details were muddled. Just the thought of him waiting across the room made her feel funny, nervous. What if he didn't like what he saw? Did he know anymore of what was to happen than she did? It would make one of them. Feeling slightly sick, but in the good way that meant something amazing was going to happen, Beth stepped from behind the screen.

The room was dark. Edmund had blown out the candles, but the fire was burning and lighting the right side of the bed with a heavy, warm orange glow. It flickered over the silky blankets and Ed's bare chest. He was under the covers, and had them folded across his lap. His fingers tapped out nervous rhythms on his knees. His face was blank of all emotions, until he saw her.

Beth stepped out of the shadows into the firelight. Her hair was down, hanging past her shoulders. Her feet were bare. She was holding herself rigidly, trying to stop trembles. When Edmund lifted his eyes to her, he stopped breathing. Love and desire washed over his face like watercolors.

Neither of them spoke; they didn't know what to say. Beth crossed to the right side of the bed and sat on its edge. The soft mattress sank under her weight without a sound. The fire popped. Edmund shifted closer to her, bringing up a knee to rest his elbow. She was looking at her lap, too nervous to even look at him. He rested a hand softly on her right shoulder. His thumb smoothed a circle in the thin material of the shift.

Her breathing slowed. He kissed her nearest shoulder, lingering until the warmth of his lips and breath melted through the fabric. Tingles radiated to her heart and sped it up. She looked at him and their eyes met. His Adam's Apple bobbed. Her lips parted. He pulled her into a kiss and the night began.

**AN: I really hope I didn't offend anyone there...I was iffy what rating to give this story b/c of this scene...but hey! They _are_ married! lol **


	6. Chapter 6

Beth never went to sleep. She drifted from one euphoric dream to the next, and then opened her eyes to find that the still light of morning lit the left side of the bed. Lost in a blur of new memories, it took her a moment to realize she was alone.

Edmund wasn't beside her. She sat up quickly. "Ed?"

"I'm here." He said quickly. He had been standing in the windowsill, looking out at the country. She turned at his voice, a hand flying to her heart. He was already crawling back into bed and had her face in his hands before she could draw breath to speak.

"Did you think I had left?" He asked, a note of teasing in his voice. He kissed her. "I would never."

Beth grabbed him, clutching his loose nightshirt in her fists and holding him tightly. "I thought you were gone again!" She choked.

Edmund tensed. Then he pressed his lips into her collarbone and stroked a finger lightly down her spine and under the covers. "I'm sorry." He whispered.

"It's alright." She said. She crawled into his lap. He stacked the pillows behind his back and pulled the covers over both of them. "My love . . ." he crooned into her hair. "My love. . ."

The honeymoon could not last forever. The plan Edmund helped develop against the witch was to be set into motion the next day. Both of their lives were at a risk. Edmund did not want to put Beth in such danger, but he knew the reason Aslan had sent him there. In order to make Beth realize her own strength and courage, it had to be so.

She was terrified for his sake. "What if you're killed?" She asked before they were separated on the battlefield. He put on a brave face for her. "I don't think I can die twice."

"Then what if I die and we're separated again?" She spoke softly in fear. Edmund thought it might be more for the separation than the death. It made his heart ache. "Do what you have to, Beth, and don't worry what happens. I'll follow wherever you go."

He kissed her ring before she had to run off, because the plan was all about timing really. As far as Edmund's experience went, he knew this plan was impossible to pull of; but as great as his faith in Aslan was, he also knew that it would work. They would win. Beth would discover herself. His job here would be finished and he would have to leave, but he was worried it would destroy her again. She had strength where strength could be built, but he wasn't sure about her strength when it came to matters of the heart; Susan's words kept replaying in his mind as he fought on the battlefield.

_I don't think she would survive it again._

Susan was good at a couple of things, and reading people was one of them. If Susan thought Beth couldn't handle it . . . He couldn't think about it now. He was going back to Aslan one way or another. If it was all the same, he had rather not go painfully.

When the fighting was over, Edmund wasn't sure who had won. He had slipped into a trance, killing those who came close to him as quickly as possible like the old days. When no more came, he snapped out of it and searched for Susan in the war-torn field. He found her kneeling beside the steward, frantically trying to stop blood from flowing out of the stump of his arm. She was crying.

"Susan," Edmund said, reaching her.

"Get some firefly serum!" She cried. The blood looked unnaturally bright in its quantity. The steward was pale and shaking. Edmund glanced around and saw some young soldiers looking on. "Get the surgeon!" he barked. They hopped to obey him.

"We need the serum!" Susan sobbed.

"We haven't got any, Su. They're fetching the doctor." Edmund said. He removed his belt and tightened it around the steward's shoulder. The man yelped in pain despite his weakness. Susan stroked his brow. "Please don't die, Ardrew." She whispered.

Suddenly, Edmund knew why his sister was panicking. The knowledge warmed his heart like a sunrise might warm his back, but he was looking into the night, distracted by unbidden images of Beth bleeding in the grass where he couldn't get to her. He dashed the thoughts away, shooting a glare at more of the on-lookers.

"Where is that surgeon?" He barked again. More people ran off to look for the doctor. Edmund gently pushed the distraught Susan to the side and took over her efforts to staunch the blood flow. She gave Edmund room but remained at the steward's side, and continued to do what she could for him.

The sight of the steward's blood began to make Edmund sick, when never before it bothered him, simply because the man loosing it meant so much to his sister. He had been fighting beside a brother after all.

"You'll be okay, Ardrew." He told him. "The doctor is coming."

When the surgeon finally got there, the intelligent young man patched the steward up like all of his amputee patients. "It looks hopeful." He reassured Susan.

"Oh thank Aslan!" she gushed. Ardrew stirred on the rocking gurney.

"'S that me lady? . . . ah," he said half focusing on Susan's profile. She choked and moved closer to him. He reached for her with the arm he no longer had. The stump wriggled. He winced and looked down at it, then out to the battlefield. "'Ave you seen me arm?" he laughed deliriously, and that, for some reason, made Susan laugh through her tears. Edmund shook his head at the pair of them.

"You," he said, stopping a passing soldier. "Have you heard news of the other group?"

"ED!" Beth cried then. He saw her running over the hill toward him. Her face was shining brilliantly, and her laugh reached him across the distance. Edmund breathed easily for the first time, and relaxed. All who he cared for were safe.  
She crashed into him and hugged him tightly, still beaming and laughing. She kissed him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Are you all right?" he asked.

"Never better," She told him. Her voice revealed how well she had risen to the occasion.

"That's . . ." Edmund's eyes fell on a majestic lion as He came over the hill towards them. "Great." Ed finished remotely. Beth looked around and gasped. He held her closer, but called over his shoulder, "Su."

The smile Ardrew had drawn from Susan fell and she allowed the gurney to go ahead without her, when she saw Aslan. She looked back at the steward, and then at Edmund sadly.

"Aslan," Susan said, gracefully sinking to her knees in reverence when He reached them.

"Hello, Dear Hearts," the lion said, looking at them each in turn, ending on Beth. He smiled. "If it were possible to have a favorite . . ."

Beth smiled widely and Aslan chuckled. He turned his smiling eyes on her husband. The pair kept eye contact for a long minute. Then the lion broke the silence. "Edmund say your goodbyes."

Edmund put his arms more tightly around his wife. She held onto him as if she would never let go. Susan closed her eyes and two fat tears rolled from under her eyelashes.

"Must I?" Edmund asked softly, knowing the answer. The lion nodded.

"But—" Beth started.

"Can she come with us?" Edmund asked desperately.

"That is out of the question." Aslan said gently. "Beth has still much more to do."

"Don't take him!" Beth pleaded.

"I must, My Heart. You are to return to England. He can not go back there."

A sob escaped Beth and Edmund rested his chin on the top of her head. He wasn't crying, but his eyes were deep with sorrow. He stroked her hair in silence.

"Aslan, please," Susan choked suddenly. "I never want to return to England! I have nothing there! Ardrew—"

The lion made a cooing noise in his throat. "Susan, I said _Beth_ shall return. You shall stay here, with your fiancé."

Susan gasped and choked in happiness. "Oh Aslan!" She threw her arms around the great lion's neck and said thank you.

"That's not fair!" Beth cried. Edmund shushed her, softly muttering in her ear. Whatever he said, it didn't work.

"No!" She cried.

"Bethany." Aslan said with a hedging tone. "Walk with me."


	7. Chapter 7

The lion and the young woman walked into the sunset. Edmund sat down beside Susan and dug his heels into the soft earth. She was looking to the east, toward the camp. After a few moments of silence, Edmund laughed. Susan double-looked him in mild surprise. "What?"

"How long have you been courting Ardrew behind our backs?"

She threw a handful of grass at him. Edmund laughed again. "It's okay. That's how it happened with us." He looked at the receding speck on the hill. His thoughts went back to those first dates and the fear he had felt. It had been a small fear of the unknown, of what might happen if he fell in love. A smile lifted the corners of his mouth to think of it. Falling was the best thing he had ever done and now there was no fear at all. That's how he knew he could go with Aslan. However, the thought of leaving still hurt, and he was worried about Beth.

"Can she handle it?" He asked. He didn't need to specify. Susan thought about it. "I think Aslan knows what he is doing."

"Answer my question, please." Edmund said sharply. "I need my old sister, not a Lucy double!"

Susan looked stung. "I'm sorry, but that is my answer Ed . . . I'm not that horrible person anymore."

"You weren't horrible." He said. "You might have lost sight of what ultimately matters, but you always paid attention to the present and what mattered then."

She smiled and twisted a blade of grass. "Well, then what do you want me to say?"

"I want you to tell me what's going to happen to her, when I'm gone."

Again, she sat quietly for a minute. "I don't know anymore, Ed. I've seen her change so many times since we've met . . . but each time, she has gotten stronger."

Edmund breathed easier. "Good."

"Will you tell Peter and Lucy that I said hello, and that I love them?"

"I was going to."

"Thank you . . . here they come back." Susan pointed. Edmund watched Beth climbing toward him and gave a melancholy sigh. "I just wish I had more time with her."

Susan patted his arm. When Aslan and Beth reached them, Beth pulled Edmund to the side with a new smile in her eyes.

"I love you." He told her. He estimated that he only had a few minutes left. If he started now, maybe he could say a lifetimes worth.

"I love you too." She said. They kissed and held each other for a long moment. "I'll miss you." She said.

"I'll miss you too." He swallowed. "Beth . . . I've been thinking about this . . . I want you to find a good man to take care of you and love you, maybe not as much as I do, but someone to make you happy. Promise me."

"I promise." Beth whispered after a long kiss.

"Don't forget about me."

"Impossible!"

"I love you!"

"I love you!"

Aslan spoke then, "Edmund time to go."

"I'll follow later." Beth promised. Edmund went with the great lion, fading into the sun like mist.

*

Peter and Lucy were surprised and delighted to learn that Susan got to journey into the new land. After Edmund finished telling the story, Peter sat back and folded his arms. "So Susan got to stay, and Beth had to go back to England? Why couldn't she just come with Ed?" he asked Aslan.

"Because Edmund was only a chapter in her life story," He answered. "Bethany will have many, many more adventures before I bring her home."

"Like what?" Lucy asked.

"You will hear them from her, in time."

Lucy hugged Edmund. He smiled back, as happy as one can be after departing one fulfilled life for the next.

"Mr. Tumnus is having tea. Let's go visit him."

"Let's," Edmund agreed. The Pevensies went further up and further in, to find the faun that they had met on their first Narnia adventure, and laughed and talked of the fascinating times they'd had in other worlds.

The End.

**AN: I had a hard time finishing this story. I don't know, I guess I just didn't want it to end, just like I didn't want the books to end. Nonetheless, I am quiet pleased with the way this story came out, and I hope you have too. **

**Please-PLEASE leave a review here, especially if you didn't in the earlier chapters (which is understandable.) Tell me what you think; Good or bad? I can take it! lol**


	8. Chapter 8

Eighty years later, a ninety-nine year old woman lay on her death bed. Her name was Mrs. Beth C. Pevencie Howard. The room was full of people; her children, her grandchildren, and even their children. Among their faces was a mixture of emotions. The oldest ones were a little sad, but mostly relieved to see that she would suffer no more, as all wise adults are able to look at death. The grandchildren were afraid and sad—who would tell them magnificent stories of adventure now? They wondered. The littlest ones were slightly bored; they still didn't understand.

Beth opened her eyes for the last time and smiled at them all one at a time. She was not afraid or sad. "There is no one left from the old days, what…" she said in a gravely and shaky voice. Her oldest child moved quickly to her side and took her old withered hand. "Yes, mother." She said kindly, stroking the old woman's wrinkled face. "But you will get to see them soon…Aunt Kate, Grandma, Grandpa, and Dad…" she said in a mystified whispered with a special smile. Beth remembered then that she wasn't the only one in to room who had had a magical adventure after all.

Beth smiled and focused her tired eyes on her daughter one last time. She laughed, tickled at the idea. "Yes, Edwina—oh, I can not wait to see my Ed again…I'll tell him you said Hi, shall I?" Beth asked in a stage whisper. Edwina smiled just like a certain king Beth used to know and winked.

"Who's Ed?" one of the little one's asked loudly.

Beth's son rested hands on the little boy's head and titled it back rather playfully and reminded him in a kind voice, "Ed was Grandma's first husband, remember pal? Aunt Eddie doesn't have the same dad as I do, remember me explaining how that works?"

"Oh yeah," The boy said. He went to the bed side and touched Beth's hand very gently, as if afraid it would break. "Won't you see Grandpa?"

Edwina and her brother laughed.

"Of course she will, buddy," Edwina told her nephew. When they turned their attention back to Beth, she was gone.

Beth had felt the pull like a pinch. With a small gasp of surprise and excitement, Beth watched the room around her fade away like the pain in her joints and chest. She felt eighteen again, and when she looked down at herself, she saw that she was young and thin and strong and dressed in the most beautiful gown she had ever worn.

Aslan was there. She smiled hugely at him. His chuckle was a loud rumble in his huge lion throat. "Did you have fun?"

Beth thought over her life. She could remember everything, even the bad stuff, but when compared to the good stuff the bad didn't even matter. She nodded, still smiling. "Oh yes. Yes, I wouldn't trade a thing."

Aslan's eyes closed as his lion mouth grinned. "Nor would I, My Dear Heart, but now I must ask you to leaeve it all behind."

Beth started guiltily. She had begun to worry about Edwina and John, and the kids…She looked into Aslan's eyes and, not for the first time, put her trust in him. Another pleasant rumble in his chest and Beth felt her worry drop away like threads of a spider's web. She knew that they would be all right without her, she had taught them well to believe in Aslan, though they knew him by a different name…

Beth looked around her. She was in the most beautiful meadow in a world more beautiful than even Ainra.

"My country," Aslan said. His ears pricked backwards as if hearing something. Whatever it was made him smile again. "There is someone here anxious to see you again."

Beth's breath caught. Aslan chuckled again, stood on all four of his massive feet, and took a step to the left, revealing the tall thin frame of Beth's first and truest love.

"Edmund," she said. Now that she was here, now that they could be together again, she realized that they had never actually been apart. She felt his presence as she had on Earth; the only difference now was that she could see his smile.

The bottom half of his face lifted and split wide open to show off perfect set of teeth; the cracked tooth she remembered was no more, not in this place. Beth's heart was already too full from seeing Aslan; it now burst open and became bigger than herself at the sight of Ed, now the truest of kings. She didn't realize it, but when her heart ran over, she looked like the truest queen.

Ed put his arms around her. "Now," he said in a tone she remembered well; his I-Told-You-So tone, "That didn't take long did it?"


End file.
